Fitting the bill of antiquity, the Altes museum remains a masterpiece of architectural design located on the museum island in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest pieces of architectural designs that have withstood the test of time and environmental conditions since its establishment. More interestingly, the museum was only restored between 2010 and 2011 and forms part of Germany’s antique collections known as “Antikensammlung” which is part of the Berlin State Museums. The Altes has a rich history and tradition dating back to 1823 when it was first erected. It is believed that the construction efforts continued until 1830 when architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel adopted a more neoclassical theme and architectural design that was to become a royal art collection gallery for the Prussian family (Tzortzi 109).
As a historically protected building given its significance to the society at the time and now, the building remains a masterpiece of exquisite neoclassical architecture and remains predominantly associated with the classical era. Until 1885, the museum was called Königliches Museum in reference to its association with the royal family. Over the years, Schinkel's work grew in stature and was recognized globally in 1999 as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The museum house various types and forms of medieval and middle ages antiquity from the Roman works to those of the Greek and Etruscans.
As a Neoclassical piece of architecture, the Altes in its impressive splendor was completed in 1830 with gigantic pillars that emerged from its expansive foundation. The museum had a wider atrium and a rotunda lined together with antique sculptures that bore a closer resemblance to the pantheon of Rome. Though initially commissioned to house royal artifacts belonging g to the Prussian family, it provided shelter to dozens of other antiquities from different eras of civilization. One of the people who greatly admired the structure and its exquisiteness was King Friedrich Wilhelm IV who decreed that the northern part of the Spree Island to be dedicated to the Museum as a sanctuary where all great creative forms of art and sciences could be housed (Tzortzi 110). Consequently, the building was extolled to the highest proportions and revered as a symbol of German civilization, a diligent observance that was marked with regular renovations and repair.
The most notable extensive repairs occurred in the wake of World War II when a truck ostensibly exploded outside the museum promoting the government to make stringent regulations regarding its safety and conservancy efforts. Currently, the Altes museum conducts frequent exhibitions that occur seasonally and where Greek and Roman art are displayed to the visitors (Tzortzi 109). As an imposing structure, visitors are often left bewildered by its mere size as it contains a large imposing staircase that leads one to the viewing area and to the different art collections. Curators at the museum then take visitors through various forms of ancient art starting with those from the 10th and the 1st century BC. Other older artifacts, the museum offers a display of its silver and gold collections. The Altes museum also has a collection of historical coins that are on offer for display.
Outstanding Features of the Altes Museum
One of the most exceptional qualities of the Altes Museum is its unique historical significance to the history of Germany and world at large as it forms part of the earlier civilization advancements marked by the artistic revolution characterized by ancient and classic forms of art, Medieval and Gothic art, Romanticism, Baroque, Renaissance, Rococo, and Neoclassicism. Therefore, the Altes museum houses the largest collection of Etruscan artifacts beyond Italy (Tzortzi 111).
Accordingly, the site is remarkable for preserving the most important part of history with an estimated 1300 variety of coins ranging from the 7th century BC and 3rd century AD.
The Altes Museum is made of light filled rotundas located strategically at the entrance and is filled with antique sculptures and splendid sculptress of inanimate objects, and other memorials of the previous civilization. Warlike memorabilia of ancient times is also located within the museum (Tzortzi 112).
The establishment was made with a rare treasure vault that contains precious jewelry and other forms of gemstones that were a mark of wealth and a monetary unit in medieval Europe.
The museum is also in possession of a portrait bust of Caesar and Cleopatra.
Design & Specifications of Various Parts
a) Columns at the entrance of the Hall
The outer columns forming the supporting structures of the colossal museum can be found towards the western side of the hall’s entrance. Every single drum is connected to each other using different materials especially during the restoration of the cylindrical shell. When radar investigations are performed along the columns using electromagnetic impulses to determine the materials used for reconstruction and repair, the resulting impulses gets reflected in the subsequent changing of the dielectric properties of the materials. Moisture accumulation along the columns tends to influence the structure's long-term durability hence the use of a specially designed radar to establish moisture distribution. Radar reflections and tomographic measurements are often performed to identify and obtain any relevant information regarding the structural elements of the columns. Most significantly the joints at the columns are believed to contain plumb layers that must have been incorporated using a flexible and ductile material to help in aligning the columnar bases (Tzortzi 111).
b) Cupola of the rotunda
Brick masonry forms part of the cupola rotunda with the lower portion comprising of a cantilevered arch. Additionally, the upper portions beyond the ring of sandstone is designed in the shape of a dome. Meanwhile, the outermost area of the cupola rotunda is made up of light bricks whose composition is believed to be charcoal and other related materials which are then joint permanently using cement and mortar. The figure below gives an architectural impression of the initial plan and the waffles located deep inside the dome which is supported by a layer of bricks and stones (Tzortzi 113).
Figure 1: Left, initial interior plan. Right: the Cupola highlighting the waffles towards the anterior end.
According to documents regarding the construction of the museum, the visible waffles within the inner surface are supposedly made of gypsum stucco. During the construction of the exterior surface, the architecture incorporated the use of porous bricks which had been cut to measure 3 centimeters. Additionally, the interior surface is accentuated with a Rabitz granting and used as a plaster lath base. Invariably, anchors were used to fix the granting passing through the masonry work while the ends of the anchors are left exposed outwards of the cupola (Tzortzi 113).
c) Floor of the rotunda
The floor comprised of a diameter of 20.7m covering two different areas, the original and the reconstructed floor. Similar to the expansive columns, the floor of the rotunda is an exquisite piece of artistic imagination. The original floor was made of gypsum screed and covered much of the gallery and extending to the columns. Between 1981 and 1982, the reconstruction of the floor with both cement screed and an assortment of flooring materials was used to repair the inner part of the rotunda. The different layers forming the original floor included a 40 mm of gypsum screed. An anhydride compound was then applied to the sand and clay materials. During the reconstruction, extensive repairs involved the removal of the older surface floor thereby exposing the layers of clay beneath.
Consequently, before re-carpeting, the existing layer of clay was topped up with gravel and oilpaper which provided the much needed waterproof quality to avoid damping. Also, additional concrete measuring 60mm in thickness was added to the oilpaper before completing the re-carpeting. Finally, a panel layer with an estimated thickness of 20mm and reinforced with cement containing limestone gravel completed the re-carpeting. Invariably, some parts of the floor constituting the panel layer hand also undergone pre-casting. The need to address crack stability led to reinforcement using the metallic bars (Tzortzi 114). Figure 2 below shows the floor of the Altes museum as originally constructed.
Figure 2: The floor of the Altes Museum as Originally Constructed.
The Munson Proctor Museum in Utica
Founded and unveiled in 1960, the Munson Museum of art had a touch of the innovative and creative art design that had marked the dawn of a new era in the growth of abstract architecture. It houses a permanent collection of internationally recognized pieces of art. The unique design of the building is considered as ultramodern, shifting from the conventional gigantic domes of the civilization era to the more abstract international style. The building was designed by Philip Johnson, a renowned architect who completed in 1960 (Whiting 318). The museum covers an area of 60000 sqft. And is supported by eight gigantic Ferro-concrete piers, two on each side of the structure. The exterior of the structure is embedded in solid bronze and Canadian granite. The uniqueness of the entire structure is epitomized by its windowless design and is uniquely elevated above a windowed office area, giving the building an aspect of levitation. The museum has an art collection which exceeds 25000 American, Asian and European paintings, sculptures and assorted artifacts some of which dates as far as the 20th and 21st century.
Interiorly, the features changes to a two-story central courtyard that is lightened by a skylight. The interior also holds an auditorium that can comfortably seat an estimated two hundred and seventy visitors and in 2010, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Bordering the facility is the Fountain Elms that also bears Victorian-era Italianate architectural design. Most importantly, the museum has an elaborately extensive collection of American and Europeanist forms of art to include renowned paintings such as “the voyage of life.”
Specifications of the Munson Proctor Museum
The initial plan intended to have the courtyard to be a garden court with the landscape of trees that would form the organic complement to the hard geometry of the architectural design. The architect, Philip Johnson also purposed to have the green scenic landscape on the outside to offer the necessary respite to the visitors engaged with the circuit of gallery rooms (Whiting 320). Most of the building was made of granite and bronze while the museum’s design also placed elaborate emphasis on the enclosed, compartmentalized free spaces. Additionally, there was a need to presage the Dumbarton Oaks at the pre-Columbian pavilion where a crisper plan for a 3x3 measurement was adopted. The architect then employed the nine unit-compartmentalization plan initially based on the 3x3 plan. The figure 3 below shows the aerial view of the Munson museum depicting the identical planes surrounding the exterior.
Figure 3: The Munson Museum on the left showing an aerial view of the exterior while the right photo shows the interior part.
The design for the Munson-Williams-Proctor Museum had a great structurally similarity to other architectural design by world-renowned architects such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe who modeled and considered the crown hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The Munson building indicated that Johnson had incorporated the international style of designing and building as epitomized by his piece of work (Whiting, 321). Accordingly, the Munson had opaque stone-dressed walls that made up the entire posterior and anterior ends of the building while also displaying opulence as suggested by the use of luxuriant materials like granite and statutory bronze. The shape of Munson was symmetrical to conform to the neoclassical ideologies that identified with the age of New Formalism in current modernized architecture. Though new formalism emerged in the 1960s, they predominantly incorporated elements of new formalist buildings such as taking a more abstract aspect of architecture. Other features of the Munson can be closely compared to combine elements of classicism which took the form of gigantic pillars, columns, colonnades, overarching domes, arcades and the use of marble and granite. Architect Johnson correspondingly used flat roofs synonymous with the international style (Whiting 322).
Bearing the historical significance of Munson, the directors of the facility were tasked to develop and implement measures that could be used to preserve all the original elements of architectural nature without necessarily jeopardizing the unconscious destruction of the Wasco skylights that had been installed during construction. The ceiling of the building was infused with closely laid boxes that comprised of 121 individual panels where the skylights had to fit in between and required skillful modification to withstand the weight of snow during winter. Consequently, an inherent need to preserve the fragile and delicate artwork led to the use of UV protection to shield the artifacts from direct weather elements. Since the initial skylights installed during construction lacked UV protection, new UV screens were then fixed to reduce the amount of light reaching the valuable displays (Whiting 322).
Structural Modifications over Time
The initial Wasco units that had been installed in 1959 have been replaced with DDBTBVV barrel vault system which is also thermally broken to fit the desirable measures of efficiency. The current Wasco units are glazed with OP3 UV-absorbing acrylic which has been confirmed to provide 92% of UV blockage including much of the daylight rendering the UV screening fabric obsolete (321).
The newly installed system is very airtight and provides complete sealing thereby eliminating the need for condensation holes thus presenting an enhanced thermal efficiency.
New skylights were installed in pre-assembled state thereby eliminating the need for mounting cranes hence saving time and labor (Whiting 323).
The similarity between the Altes and Munson Museums
Both the Altes Museum and the Munson Proctor Museum share a commonness in their exploitation of classicism theme. Whereas the Altes represents a meaningful era of classicism as marked with lucidly detailed exterior and an interior structure borrowing significantly from the Ancient Greek, the Munson Museum, on the other hand, was modeled on the same neoclassical theme which adopted a more abstract concept in its execution (Gazi 97).
Both museums were constructed purposely for art exhibition as opposed to being converted from ordinary buildings because of their historical significance. The Altes was constructed to accommodate of all of Berlin’s art collections and other forms of classical antiquity which it did since 1904. The Munson museum was also built to purposely shelter arts collection.
Both pieces of architectural ingenuity houses classical antiquity from all over the world with Greek artefacts being commonplace in the two museums (Gazi 95).
Both museums have undergone extensive repair since their commissioning to correct damages occasioned by environmental and human factors. Some parts have been refurbished while others have remain intact.
Differences between Altes and Munson Museums
The Altes was designed as a large imposing dome with expansive pillars to support its dome shape whereas the Munson museum was structured as a partially levitating flat roofed building with identical panes covering much of its exterior.
The Altes represents the classical period of artistry that thrived in the 1800s while the Munson represents a new era of international style mostly associated with neoclassical architecture synonymous with the 1960s (Gazi 99).
While the Altes was commissioned as a result of a political decree to preserve artifacts of the Prussian royal family, the Munson museum was established as a center for academic and scientific excellence.
As a monumental piece, the Altes had a sophisticated exterior which was given more prominence than the interior. Meanwhile, the Munson was equally unique both from outside and the inside. In the Munson scenario, it appears as though the elaborate emphasis was placed on the inside than on the outside as depicted by its delicate and more abstract architectural design.
Works Cited
Gazi, Andromache. "Displaying archaeology: Exhibiting ideology in 19th and early 20th century Greek museums." Ancient Monuments and Modern Identities. Routledge, 2017. 95-116.
Tzortzi, Kali. "The museum and the city: Towards a new architectural and museological model for the museum?." City, Culture and Society 6.4 (2015): 109-115.
Whiting, Cécile. "Philip Johnson: The Whence and Whither of Art in Architecture." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 75.3 (2016): 318-338.
